With a high of 35 and skies sunny being reported today (it is now 5:39am) by weather.com the students will be happy with a day off from school at the end of their first week back to school from the winter holidays.

I am curious though. What does this do for the school system budget. Are teachers paid? Can this be considered a furlough day?

Are any of the teachers concerned that the students will have fallen behind with all of the recent days off?

There is ice on my porch, steps and driveway. I haven't gotten on the road yet, but I'm sure there is some black ice there. I am happy that Dr. Truby went ahead and closed school for the day. Better to be safe than sorry. The very folks belly-aching about Truby's decision would likely be the first to point a accusatory finger at him should a bus accident occur if school were in session today.

On the road at 4 AM Hwy 36 with several patches of black ice
and many side streets with a thin glaze of ice in numerous areas. DOT is out in force with sand trucks. According to Navagator.com 630 AM serveral accidents in the metro area blocking with all lanes and the best is yet to come. I hope the afternoon ride is less troublesome.

That is what back up plans are for. Every parent of school aged children should have one. I'm less concerned with parents being in a "bind" than I am with the safety of their children. School was cancelled at 8:45 p.m. that should have given parents an hour or so to come up with an alternate plan. Honestly, they had several days warning if they pay attention to the news as it was reported that ice/snow was likely. Parents should have had their back up plan in place. Where is the PERSONAL accountability? Your children.....your job.......YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. School is not your day care center.

Bravo #11! Very well-said. And I totally agree with those who say better safe than sorry. Keep in mind that we are still a relatively rural county - while main roads may be clear, many of our students live in areas where roads are NOT clear, NOT salted or sanded, and running buses to those areas could be hazardous. And one day off is not going to make or break a student's success in school. Here's an idea: Parents, if you're home with your kids today, why not spend some of this time reading to/with them, working math problems, etc. - even making a batch of brownies can help them understand fractions, etc. Turn off the TV - and remember, school is NOT the only place where learning happens.

My backup plan was to send my students to school seeing as it is a weekday. I try not to base my personal decisions on the forecast of meteorologists or websites (that subsequently live update every hour on the hour) but rather on the letter of the law and the policy set forth by the school system.

While 8:45pm did give me ample time to make a decision as to how I would go on to work and yet still tend to my, um, "personal responsibility."

I do not see school as a day care center but I do wish the decision had been based on less speculation. I firmly believe a 2-hour delay would have been a fine solution in which streets could have been checked/cleared and the safety of students reassessed.

Oh, and #12 perhaps you got the URL wrong? A quick typing of navagator.com brings up a GSP navigator system on amazon.com. Nice try. Thanks for playing!

While I do not agree with the first part of your statement I think the second part is completely on the mark. You have a firm grasp on personal responsibility in terms of educating our children.

You are so right. If I were at home with my children today we would have the TV off (for the most part) and while I would NOT subject them to my brownies I would insist on some reading as well as some other things (board games, crafts and even browsing the 'net learning about other countries/people/land).

Thank you for reminding me the most important lesson of all. Every moment can be a teaching moment!

You don't have to explain a back up plan to me. I lived in Colorado where the winters can get pretty brutal and I have always been a working parent so I certainly had to scramble to make my back up plan happen more than once.
Mine was merely a comment, not an invitation to give me a lecture.
My kids are grown now and are contributing members of society so I guess we managed just fine.

There seems to be a lot of poeple complaining about the superintendent's decision to close the schools. Remember, Dr. Truby is responsible for the entire school system, you're not. You may have been "put in a bind" to find an alternate plan for your child, but how much more of a "bind" would you be in if you were making funeral arrangements for your child?

Most of those complaining are complaining because they lost their daytime childcare. Pay no attention to them and be happy an ounce of prevention was applied to a potential dangerous situation. Remember - "Better safe than sorry". It's impossible to go back in time and change something that already happened but it's not impratical to use foresight to attempt to prevent it. We all will never kow if an accident was prevented and that is something to be thankful for.

i'm not complaining because i lost my childcare, i don't need it... i'm complaining because at 9:00 pm last night when there was no precipitation or very little of it, they decided to call off school... the roads were fine this morning and there was no snow on the ground... it was a poor decision and one that the kids will have to make up for because of the lack of judgment of one individual... when are they going to make the kids make up this day? during one of the breaks or add it on to the end of school year...

closing the schools in lamar county for this shows a severe lack of judgement and even less common sense.the person or persons that made this choice should ask for a refund for they're over priced educations, and and seek common sense. it'll suit them better in the future when another decision like this poorly thought out choice was made.

Unless you have lived where there is snow in the winter, you have no idea how to drive in it.
When it rains you have to drive with care, same as snow.Also didn't you plan to go to grocery before the report of snow?????????

I bet if the schools were keep open and someone slid on a patch of ice and ramed into the bus and injured several of the children you would have a different comment or would want to sue the school board for putting our kids in danger.

I would rather have these people who look out for them than have people that don't care

Dear Anonymous #17, I am very sorry that you consider this choice thoughtless. There are many thoughtful people from surrounding counties making tough decisions about the safety of the children of our great schools. A decision, usually, is made as a group of counties and takes the safety of your children very seriously. Those in charge of these decisions received countless phone calls and e-mails asking for information about the closing. The decision was made last night as all schools were doing in order to inform parents early. We care about the children of our county and will always err on the side of safety. It may have been frustrating for parents to see no ice on the roads, but I have a suspicion that it was much nicer than seeing our flipped school busses on Channel 11 news. Please be understanding of the tough choices made by those in positions to make them. I do not speak for the board of education, only as a citizen, proud of the leadership in our schools. Have a blessed day and new year. Ryan Christopher

As a teen in mid-winter northern Ohio I would pick up some buddies and go driving after storms. We would go out on parking lots, flat frozen fields, and frozen lakes and do donuts (or "louies" as we called them). We would set up little "road courses" and race each other. It was great practice for handling cars in bad weather. If someone learns to spin and stop spinning on ice and snow they can certainly handle any water, mud, or unplanned loss of control.

The same is not generally true for people who have never intentionally lost control and learned to recover. Most people just do the wrong thing when they hit a bad spot. No matter how many times they read about what to do and not do, there is nothing like learning through actual experience.

Very well stated Ryan. Based upon the weather predictions, which is all the Board of Education has to go on, I think whomever made the call made a good decision. It is clearly obvious that the ones who are questioning the decision were either personally inconvenienced because they themselves did not pay attention to the reports or just another one of the citizens who do not have a life and have a full time position of sitting at their computers and making critical comments of those who try to do the right thing.

Those that want to complain and gripe should run for BoE if they think they can do better!!! Even if it had only rained, which was forecast, the roads would've been a mess with ice. They made decision to be better safe than sorry...luckily weather turned out to be less severe than anticipated.

That is nice Tom for you to share your northern experience with us. But here in the south the ponds and lakes do not freeze like they do there. I just hope the younger folks do not try and pull the same stunts out here.

I do believe that the students have 3 snow days that do not have to be made up. I am in total agreement with Dr. Truby and the board to be better safe than sorry. Their are too many people quick to produce a lawsuit these days when something unpreventable does occur. Why to you think spanking has been taken out of school? Look how that is affecting discipline in the classrooms. We wonder why Japan and China are way ahead of the United States. They have more respect and discipline. I'm sure they don't disrespect their schools for decisions they make.

One last comment from me, I promise.
I also think about the fact that we're making our kids too soft by coddling them and overprotecting them. I think we do our kids a disservice by making them think the possibility of snow or ice could cause the school bus to slide and kill them all.
Kids are capable of many good and brave things, if we will give them their wings.